Prop betting now accounts for 60 percent of Super Bowl handle at Vegas’ biggest book

The Super Bowl has long been the most wagered-on sporting event in America. In Las Vegas alone, nearly $115 million was bet on last year’s game, a total that’s estimated to be a tiny fraction of the overall amount wagered when illegal betting is also factored in.

It could be even higher this year, and increasingly, more of that figure is made up of proposition betting. Accounting for an “insignificant” amount of Las Vegas’ handle as recently as 25 years ago, props have boomed over the last decade or so and now account for more than half of the action at the world’s largest sportsbook on the busiest day of the year.

“Years back it used to be maybe 25 percent,” said Jeff Sherman, assistant manager at the Westgate SuperBook. “Way back before that it was insignificant. It’s gradually risen to get to a point to be over 60 percent of what we write. It just speaks volumes about what the props mean from a business standpoint for the books.”

Assuming that 60 percent figure holds elsewhere, that means nearly $70 million was wagered on Super Bowl props last season. For perspective, consider the total handle in Las Vegas in 2003 was $71.6 million.

Along with Jay Kornegay and Ed Salmons, Sherman said the group now running the Westgate SuperBook began expanding their offerings when the trio was at the Imperial Palace in the early 1990s, but props became a real phenomenon in the last 15 years.

Their popularity cuts across all types of bettors, Sherman said, with the sophisticated value players pouncing early on bookmakers’ mistakes and visiting gamblers typically betting the opposite side when they arrive the weekend of the big game.

This year, the Westgate is offering well over 300 props, with everything from alternate point spreads to the total receiving yards either team’s third-string tight end will gain. How much more could they add?

Probably not many.

“At the point we’re at now, you could make some more,” Sherman said, “but we’re almost at the saturation point with how many we offer.”

PROPS, PROPS, PROPS, PROPS, PROPS

Prop betting was the topic du jour on Wednesday.

AROUND THE WEB

LOOK WHO’S TALKING

“The sports books in Nevada handled $115 million on last year’s game and the record was set two years ago when Seattle overwhelmed Denver. I think this year we’ll challenge that record. Sports betting is more popular than ever by the numbers we’re seeing this year.” —VP of Westgate Las Vegas Jay Kornegay on the action on this year’s Super Bowl

TWEETS OF NOTE

ODDS & ENDS

ODDSMAKER’S TAKE

“My strongest position on this game, is I like the under. We just saw a drop in the totals (Wednesday); a lot of the 45.5s dissipated, now it’s 45-even, even some 44.5s showing up,” Westgate’s Jeff Sherman, talking Super Bowl 50 on Sportsbook Radio.